BAUMAN OFFERS SUBSTITUTE CONNECTOR PLAN

Bauman Offers Connector Substitute

Ald. Robert Bauman offered his file, Common Council #051714 as a substitute to Common Council file 051610, the Milwaukee Connector matter.

As I have mentioned before, the 051610 file, which is to be debated by the Common Council Steering and Rules Committee on Thursday, April 27^th 2006, still contains absolutely no text.

Bauman more than makes up for that oversight with his filing, which would materially change the nature of the connector proposal in the following ways.

According to the text of Bauman’s proposal, file 051714, if adopted, would call for:

“1. Extending the proposed Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail service within Milwaukee County to serve the 30th Street Rail Corridor and the West Allis Air Line Rail Corridor.

2. Using the $91.5 million in federal funds reserved for public transit improvements in the Milwaukee area to construct commuter rail routes within Milwaukee County to serve the 30th Street Rail Corridor and the West Allis Air Line Rail Corridor.

3. The development of transit-oriented residential and commercial developments along the 30th Street Rail Corridor and along the West Allis Air Line Rail Corridor, as well as the construction of commuter rail passenger stations at various locations, including the corporate headquarters of Miller Brewing Company and Harley Davidson Corporation, Tower Automotive site, the Master Lock and DRS manufacturing facilities, Miller Park, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, State Fair Park and the Milwaukee County Zoo.

This resolution also authorizes and directs all City departments to take the actions necessary to expand the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Commuter Rail Study to include the 30th Street and West Allis Air Line corridors and to ensure that the $91.5 million in federal funding is used to construct commuter rail routes serving these corridors.

Finally, this resolution directs the City's representative on the Milwaukee Transit Connector Study's Steering Committee to vote in favor of the ‘no build’ option and to vote against moving any ‘build’ option into the preliminary engineering phase.”

Bauman’s frequent criticisms of the Connector proposal have drawn a response from Willie Hines, Jr. the council president and Chairman of the Steering and Rules Committee. That committee is composed of the chairs of all regular council committees, including Bauman, who as chair of the Public Works Committee, would ordinarily have heard the connector proposal had not Hines yanked it away from him.

Hines wrote a letter today acknowledging the detractors of the Connector project, presumably Bauman, and suggested the concerns of the detractors should be addressed. Hines’ letter asks Peter Beitzel, Chairman of the Milwaukee Connector Study SteeringCommittee to “address concerns surrounding the viability of the Connector project."

Hines attached a document from Peter Beitzel, the chairman of the connector study addressing some of Bauman's concerns.

Bauman then fired back with his retort, including calling some of Beitzel's claims "ridiculous."

The battle is joined!

--Michael Horne